Ashes to Ashes - Softcover

Tami Hoag

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0752826913 ISBN 13: 9780752826912

Publisher: Orion Paperbacks, 1999

Synopsis

Kate Conlan, ex FBI agent, finds herself protecting a teenage runaway from a serial killer who burns women alive...Known as the Cremator, the serial killer has already claimed three victims, and there's only one witness, who's not talking. Kate Conlan can't tell if she's working with a reluctant witness, a potential victim, or something more sinister still. As she battles with demons of her own, and amidst the frenzy of media attention, Kate finds herself on the trail of the Cremator. She's got what it takes to stop him. And he wants her alone...

About this title

Review:

Some doctoral candidate is doubtless hard at work as you read this, trying to explain why and how the serial killer suddenly became every thriller writer's favorite subject. Meanwhile, the irrepressible Tami Hoag shows us in her latest sure-to-be-a-bestseller how the theme should be handled--with sensitivity, wit, and enough energy to heat a small city.

A monster known as the Cremator is killing prostitutes in Minneapolis parks and setting their bodies on fire. When one of his victims turns out to be the daughter of a local billionaire, and a homeless teenager claims to have witnessed the burning, it brings together former FBI agent Kate Conlan (now working as a victim-witness advocate) and the Bureau's top serial-killer profiler, John Quinn. Conlan and Quinn share a painful personal history; now they have to work together against a very smart lunatic who seems to be able to read their minds.

Although none of this is actually groundbreaking material, Hoag leaps into her story as if she were the very first writer to have thought of it. Guess what? Her innocence and verve are contagious. We throw skepticism to the winds and gladly go along for the thrilling and romantic ride, just as we did in other Hoag hits such as Cry Wolf, Dark Paradise, Guilty As Sin, Lucky's Lady, Magic, Night Sins, Still Waters, and A Thin Dark Line--all available in paperback. --Dick Adler

From the Inside Flap:

He performs his profane ceremony in a wooded Minneapolis park, anointing his victims, then setting the bodies ablaze. He has already claimed three lives, and he won't stop there. Only this time there is a witness. But she isn't talking.
Enter Kate Conlan, former FBI agent turned victim/witness advocate. Not even she can tell if the reluctant witness is a potential victim or something more troubling still. Her superiors are interested only because the latest victim may be the daughter of Peter Bondurant, an enigmatic billionaire. When he pulls strings, Special Agent John Quinn gets assigned to the case. But the FBI's ace profiler of serial killers is the last person Kate wants to work with, not with their troubled history. Now she faces the most difficult role of her career--and her life. For she's the only woman who has what it takes to stop the killer...and the one woman he wants next.
In the darkness a match is struck. Not for heat, not for light...but to ignite the fire of a killer. He leaves nothing behind but ashes...and the ice-cold certainty that he will strike again.

About this edition

• Publisher: Orion Paperbacks
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0752826913
• ISBN 13: 9780752826912
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 576